


The Timewarper

by Doctor_Bert_Rand



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Consider this happening in the real world instead, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Not the Danny Phantom universe either, Other, This is not really a story about Clockwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 08:59:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5737603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctor_Bert_Rand/pseuds/Doctor_Bert_Rand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow the story of a man who was blessed... or cursed with the gift of time warping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Timewarper

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a one-shot. I don't know what made me write this... But I guess a combination of insomnia, reading war stories in AO3, and a glimpse of my one of my favorite plants in PvZ 2 is the culprit. This idea has been in my head for quite a while and I've always wondered what it will be like if you could warp time to your will...
> 
> The Author Sage Hannigan has a book series with a similar title, and maybe perhaps the same genre as what I’m writing, but I say “perhaps” because I’ve never read the series, and the only reason I know about it is because I checked beforehand if there were any other works with similar titles. Should by coincidence my work be very similar to somebody else’s work then I say peace. I mean no offense and won’t do any trouble.
> 
> Now then, on to the story… For those who play PvZ 2, do you remember the plant Thyme Warp? This story may be too angst for your liking, so I’m giving a warning ahead.

Time. People say it’s the most valuable treasure everyone could have, a treasure that eventually will run out… Life will be determined on how you use it.

 

You know what? Screw that. Screw it being a valuable treasure. I hate it. I hate how it gave me the curse of time warping.

 

How did I first find out about my powers? By accident, when I was ten years old at a friend’s party. Clumsy me knocked a glass on the table and broke it to pieces. Everything seemed to freeze back then when my gaze was fixed on the shards on the floor. Suddenly everything became engulfed in a white glow before every object and person in the room shrank and “moments later” they returned to their original positions, including the glass that I broke “earlier” standing innocently on my table.

 

At first I thought I was hallucinating, wondering if I was high from whatever was spiked in the party menu. The dream I got later that night though settled off my doubts… When the past time warper told me in my dream about who--- scratch that, what I was, at first I thought it was surreal. He taught me that people were actually aware of our existence in the past, but ever since the advent of science, knowledge about us has long disappeared. However, I guess the weirdest thing he taught was the technique he showed so that I could use my “time-warping” powers. What technique you say? Dancing. Not what you expected huh? But it’s true. It’s actually both a simple and stupid dance. How to do it? As the man told me himself so that I wouldn’t forget:

 

_It’s just a jump to the left, then a step to the right._

_Put your hands on your hips, and bring your knees in tight._

_But’s it the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane_

_Let’s do the time warp again! Let’s do the time warp again!_

 

The key was to think of exactly “when” I wanted to go back while doing the steps. When I woke up the next morning, I really thought I was getting crazy and even tried talking to my friends about it, although judging from their looks, I could guess that they thought I was a good candidate for the loony bin. My parents didn’t help either. They merely passed it off as weird fantasies and that I was watching too many cartoons for my own good. Well, maybe they were right.

 

At that time, I myself refused to acknowledge that I was “special”. After all, I was the average kid… Well maybe not so average in terms of size since my waistline was… let’s not talk about it okay? I’ve got enough low self-esteem and I don’t want more added to the list. Anyway, back to my story. It went on for a while, me doing all things a normal ten year old did---------until I received my report of grades.

 

I was actually scared to get home. This was the first time that I got such low grades that I know Mom and Dad wouldn’t be pleased. I may be a spoiled brat since I was an only child but I knew that they loved me. I know I was starting to become such a handful to them because I already began my rebellious streak by going home late at night or wasting time playing video games. I couldn’t add my failing grades to their worries. How I wished I could turn back time… then I remembered. I can turn back time! Maybe…

 

I didn’t want anyone seeing me doing the stupid dance, so I found a secluded area in the woods beside the school. At that time, I didn’t know if I was indeed so desperate that I actually was going crazy by believing that dancing can solve my worries.

 

_A jump to the left, then a step to the right._

_Hands on my hips, and knees in tight._

 

Nothing happened. Of course! What did I expect?

 

As if on cue, I remembered that man’s words: Think exactly “when” I wanted to go back.

 

I wished to go back last week Thursday morning, just when I woke up.

 

Setting the time frame in my head, I began to redo the steps. Just when I did the step to the right, my body became enclosed in a white glow. With a bit of nervousness and excitement, I finished the dance then suddenly everything became white.

 

I felt my body rest in the soft confines of something fluffy, and upon opening my eyes I was greeted by the welcome sight of my bedroom.

 

**KRIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGG!!!**

**I SWEAR I AM GOING TO KILL THAT ALARM CLOCK SOMEDAY.**

 

I switched off the alarm and then sat up on my bed. Strange. Normally, I felt groggy every time I woke up but now I just seemed to be bursting with energy. I was actually wearing my pajamas too, and I briefly wondered where the school uniform earli—next Friday went. Wait! Before I jump to conclusions, I still had to make sure that I was indeed back in time.

 

Quickly jumping out my bed, I quickly ran down the stairs and into the kitchen where as expected, Mom was cooking breakfast and Dad was enjoying his toast.

 

“What a surprise sweetie! You’re up early!” Mom’s cheery voice rang through the air.

“I agree. Normally you’d still be asleep by this time. What got into you?” Dad skeptically added.

 

They didn’t know, but I actually woke up earlier than they thought. But I usually take about an hour before I head downstairs. What do I do then at my bedroom? Please. Those game consoles at my turf needed daily “maintenance” as I’d like to call it. Works great too in waking up my brain for school. Why don’t my parents check on me? Ever since I was a child I was rather keen on privacy, and they knew better than to just barge in my room without prior warning, lest they evoke my great wrath-- or should I say temper tantrums which apparently, bothered them to no end. They preferred keeping things peaceful. I’m a spoiled brat indeed huh?

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what day is it today?” I asked.

“Did you fall down your bed or something that you forgot what today is? It’s your Dad’s birthday!! I guess this is your birthday present for Dad?” Mom joked.

 

I couldn’t believe it! I actually went back in time! Because Dad’s birthday was indeed, last week Thursday!! I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. No. I WASN’T DREAMING.

 

“Yeehaw!!” I joyously announced, my parents oblivious to the true reason of my giddiness. Sure, “recelebrating” Dad’s birthday was exciting, but what cheered me up more was that I had given myself a week’s worth of studying time for the finals! Ever since that day, I’ve acknowledged that I was indeed a true time warper.

 

People at some point wish they could turn back time to fix their mistakes, but only a few realize that truly rewinding time would mean they’ll also forget the knowledge of the present. They’ll be bound to do that same mistake again if they rewound time and set everything back to the way it was, erasing their own memories of the “present”. How do I know that? As if you didn’t know the answer already… I’ve spent more than enough time “helping” people or as you like to call it, give them a second chance or time in life. Only a very few truly changed their futures. Frustrating really…

 

Am I being a hypocrite? Yeah, maybe. I’ve had more than my fair share of being selfish too with my own power, using it to get myself out of trouble. Oh. Did I mention it? One of the perks of my powers is that the “memory-erasing” part does not include me. Man, I remembered how I actually rewound time just to spare my late arrivals in class, to make myself an “ace” student where in actuality I rewound time the moment I memorized either my quiz or test paper’s questions to give me “more time to study”. Quite nifty huh?

 

I realized though that my time warping had its limits.

 

First, it can’t revive the dead. I know more than enough when I tried to reverse the clock just to get my parents back. Freaky car accident killed both of them right on the spot. The clock did reverse, but not in the way you think. I guess this is why it is called “time warping” instead of “time rewinding”. On the good side though, at least they didn’t suffer, but they did leave me all alone. I still find myself mulling whether if their deaths became the turning point for me to change from that reckless and free kid to the bitter and serious young man I have become now.

 

Second, I’m alone. No one can truly understand me… except for the past time warpers who I talk to in my dreams. They said themselves that for a current period, there could only be one time warper, meaning I can’t warp time beyond or before my own lifetime. Should that time warper die, the power is passed on to a random newborn, whoever it is.

 

Third, I cannot exactly predict the future once I’ve warped to the past. By changing things in the past, things that supposedly happened in the “present” also changed, although most of these changes are limited to the people I interacted with, and overall I didn’t mess up anything major… yet.

 

Fourth and perhaps the most important rule I should remember: Time warping had a cost. I warp time, I pay it with my life… or should I say time? Time I would have lived in my luckiest timeline. That certainly explains why most time warpers I met in my dreams barely looked old, the oldest one from my estimate was a woman in her late thirties or early forties… Then again… looks can be deceiving. The point is, with every reversal, my life is cut short by the amount of time I rewound, and considering the times I used up this power, it’s no wonder that now in the age of 21, what’s supposed to be a healthy young man at the beginning of his prime is instead an overweight frail and sickly man.

 

I have forgotten how many times I fainted, vomited blood, lost consciousness, or found myself in a hospital bed, with the doctors saying that in my condition, I wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer…

 

I normally don’t swear at people. My parents taught me that. But at that time all I wanted to shout to those doctors was:

 

**BITCH PLEASE!! I ALREADY FUCKING KNOW MY TIME IS LIMITED, AND I DON’T NEED YOU SHOVING IT IN MY FUCKING FACE!!**

 

And perhaps I did shout it at them. I didn’t even know my eyes were already streaming with tears, and those doctors’ solemn looks were not even helping…

 

Somehow, being in that hospital made me feel even more depressed, because I knew I had the power to rewind time for the patients… to a time when they were still healthy and perhaps somehow be spared from the agony of their disease. However, it was countered by my own fear of losing my life. You often hear a lot of people saying that they’ll give up their life for someone… but truth be told when faced with certain death, even your very best friends can turn on you. I simply felt not strong enough to do it. In a way, doing that meant suicide, considering my already failing body.

 

 

Now though was different. Bodies lying everywhere… Blood spattered on the cold hospital floor. The sick stench of either rotting or burning human flesh was permeating the air, and I thought I could gag alone from the smell. Scratch that, I was already gagging.

 

What had happened you ask? During my stay in the hospital, war broke out between my country and a neighboring one from the east, and for stupid reasons too: territorial disputes, competition for resources, and a supposedly alleged falling out between the people on its borders. How about an oversized ego and lack of understanding and sharing? Our country though was in a rather problematic setting. The lands we owned were particularly rich in black gold and minerals, not to mention bounties from the forest and the nearby sea, which we rely on a lot. It doesn’t take a politician to know of our situation… Every day, disputes at the borders were always being aired on news, and somehow we only knew it was a matter of time before the tension was too much and blood will be shed.

 

The hospital was filled to the brim with both injured civilians and soldiers from the ravages of war. From their eyes, I knew though that far more horrors were at play in the battlefield. I could hear their moans, their screams of pain, the rush of the doctors as the hospital was heavily understaffed from the amount of injured coming in. I could barely breathe… How much more for these people?

 

That was when I thought… It was time.

 

If I was already dying, I could at least do one final act of “kindness” from my rather selfish life… I don’t know if this will work, but I guess I could only try…

 

 

 

That night, beyond the cries of agony echoing through the hospital halls, someone was walking alone in the dim passages. He was looking for a secluded room for him to perform his final work.

 

Ah. A janitor’s closet. How fitting. The man thought to himself.

 

Closing the door to the outside world, he found himself in the darkness, alone in his thoughts… Perhaps memories of the life he used to have before it became such a mess. Now that he realized it, he wondered if the other time warpers too also came to this point: to give up their remaining time in the hopes of changing the outcome of the world they’ll leave behind.

 

_A jump to the left._

 

He froze in fear. No, this wasn’t a time for fear. I had already decided. If I back down now, I am bound to die sooner or later! At least this way, I’ll be able to… to…

 

He felt his eyes flood with tears. He was darn scared of dying.

 

**Stop it! You’ve cried more than enough! How long are you going to be a cheater from your problems?**

 

That didn’t the stop of flood of memories though. Memories of happy times he wished he could just rewind and experience again. Memories he wished he could still have now… But know that he couldn’t. His loved ones were among the first to be victims of the war. Darn it! Everyone he ever seemed to love or value somehow will slip away from his grasp… And he couldn’t even do anything about it! And he was the FUCKING TIME WARPER!!

 

I might have had them… But in a way, I was still alone. No one truly understood what my life was like, and although I couldn’t say that my life was sadder than someone else’s, I sure could say that mine downright hurt… a lot… like fucking hell.

 

I could hear the echoes of pain from outside the door that snapped me back to the reality: if there was anyone who could change this, it was me.

 

I let the rest of my tears flow before I calmed myself down and steeled my resolve. People have often said that there was a better place in the afterlife… at least for good people but then there was also hell. I wasn’t an atheist, but I wasn’t religious either… I didn’t know what was in the afterlife, and perhaps humanity could only see a mere glimpse of it. Perhaps I shall finally find the answer to the age-old riddle that has made humans ponder for centuries: What is the afterlife?

 

It’s strange… I didn’t carry a knife, nor did I ready my knot. I didn’t bring any poison nor did I slip in a gun… Yet here I am alone in the darkness… Ready to kill myself with the dance of people who were gifted with the power to rewind time… whether it be for good or bad.

 

 

_Please use up my remaining life to rewind time and avert this catastrophe…_

 

 

_A jump to the left._

_A step to the right._

_Hands on my hips._

_Bring my knees in tight._

_A pelvic thrust that drives you insane._

_Let’s do the time warp again._

_Let’s do the time warp again…_


End file.
